Lithuania aims to produce 100% of power domestically in future, 80% from renewables

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Lithuania aims to produce 100% of power domestically in future, 80% from renewables

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Lithuania aims to generate 100 percent of its electricity domestically in the future, with 80 percent of the total power demand to be met using renewable resources, according to a draft new National Energy Strategy.

The draft strategy sees natural gas as a transitional fuel until 2050, expects the Klaipėda liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to supply gas to the Baltic countries, Poland and Ukraine, and gives a top priority to the country's power grid synchronization project.

The document makes no mention of nuclear energy development in the country.

Lithuania currently imports around 70 percent of its electricity. The strategy, drafted by the Energy Ministry, envisages that domestically-produced electricity will cover 35 percent of the country's needs in 2020, 70 percent in 2030 and 100 percent in 2050.

However, the aim will be to ensure that electricity prices are not higher than those in neighboring countries.

Under the draft strategy, renewable energy will become the main source of energy in all sectors: electricity, heating, cooling and transport. The document sets the target of increasing the RES share in the country's total energy balance to 30 percent in 2020, 45 percent in 2030 and 80 percent in 2050.

An additional 250-megawatt quota is to be allocated for wind power plants by 2020, with wind energy to become the main source of energy in Lithuania.

The Energy Ministry regards natural gas as a transitional fuel until 2050, when the economy is expected to switch to cleaner energy sources.

The ministry acknowledges that the costs of gas infrastructure in Lithuania are "relatively expensive", but it expects these costs to decline after the LNG terminal, which is currently leased, is purchased.

It is also planned that after a gas interconnection with Poland becomes operational in 2021, Lithuania will export gas via the terminal to Poland and Ukraine, which will reduce the share of the costs covered by Lithuanian consumers.

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Lithuania aims to produce 100% of power domestically in future, 80% from renewables